Predicting and Preventing: Developing a Risk Assessment Mechanism for Residential Housing

The introduction of legislative requirements placed upon key agencies to consider the crime and disorder implications of every decision that they make has been a progressive step in crime reduction. Yet this requirement will not achieve its potential unless these partner agencies can agree upon which factors are indeed criminogenic and therefore what impact their decisions will have upon crime. Recognising the need for clarification within the field of designing out crime within the built environment, this paper presents a comprehensive, yet straightforward and usable crime risk assessment mechanism which Architectural Liaison Officers and Crime Prevention Design Advisors can use to predict the vulnerability of residential housing to future crime and disorder problems.